Even though the Pokémon show hit the TV screens over 20 years ago and its craze gradually faded out over the years, it became an inseparable part of the constantly developing field of the pop-culture. The trials and tribulations of Ash Ketchum and his friends became a cornerstone for the genre loved by millions of people around the world. Famous pocket monsters inspired many films, gadgets, plush toys, board and video games raising the prestige of the universe to its peak. Those of you who played the Pokémon trading card game know what I’m talking about!

Amongst sideo games, there’s Pixel Tournament – a new Android game which, at the first glance, looks like one of the rip-offs of a Pokémon game on the Game Boy platform. The fans of the genre, may, however, find some of its elements interesting and become eager to take a closer look into it.

In Pixel Tournament, just like in the majority of games based on the universe of Pokémon, you become a trainer of the said pocket monsters. Your goal is to catch Pokémon, train them and battle your opponents in order to become the greatest monster trainer of all time. Just like in other Pokémon-based games on the Game Boy platform, Pixel Tournament features a map-mode, in which you can move your hero across the map, visit numerous places and choose your battles. There is also a battle-mode, in which you can fight your enemies, pick your Pokémon and plan your strategy.

In the game, however, you will have to do much more than just jumping from battle to battle. There will be a plethora of options waiting for you, including levelling your monsters, completing quests and managing your economical background. If you want to know how to handle the basics of this game, it’s a high time for some lecture. With that said, go ahead and check out our Pixel Tournament tips, cheats and strategies below.

1. Learn The Mechanics To Fight More Efficiently

Though Pixel Tournament shares many similarities with the original Pokémon trading card games, it has several new features which make this game unique.

In the battle-mode, your pocket monsters no longer fight in 1v1 scope, but you will command them and plan their moves simultaneously on the tactical field. In every battle, there is an action order which determines a sequence in accordance to which you and your enemy’s monsters will fight. It’s good to keep that order in mind to make sure that everything will go as planned and you won’t get surprised.

What’s more, the battle-mode features different weather conditions which affect the effectivity of your monsters. At this point, you want to remember that every pocket monster is assigned to a certain type, such as fire, water, grass or rock. If your water Pokémon battles in rain, it gains additional damage boost up to 10%. In order to maximize your battle effectiveness, you want to remember about the relation between monsters and weather conditions.

Speaking of the monster effectiveness, let’s talk now a bit about your Pokémon skills. Depending on the actual quality of your monster, you have a number of skills which you can activate in battle against your enemies. Some of the skills will affect only singular Pokémon, whereas other will have a wide area of effect. That said, make sure to read descriptions of your skills to memorize what they do and, in the process, become more effective in battle.

Remember that some of the Pokémon types should avoid fighting those Pokémon which have high resistance against their attacks. If you ever played any original Pokémon game, you will know that fire type Pokémon are not necessarily good against water type Pokémon. In the other way around, however, it works very well, since the water quenches the flame. It’s really intuitive to learn these relations and memorize them. That said, there are 3 types of the skill effectivity marked with the following colours: green – effective, yellow – normal, and red – not effective. Once you remember that pattern you will know how to choose your targets well to avoid attacks which are not effective against a particular Pokémon type.

Some of your Pokémon skills will fall into a category of the Physical Attacks, while other are described as Special Attacks. Each of them respond to a given stat as follows: Physical ATK. Damage and Special ATK. Damage. To activate your Pokémon skills, you will have to spend your Skill Points. The general rule is: the more powerful a skill is, the more SP it requires to activate. As your monster gets stronger and levels up, you will have a chance to unlock additional and much more powerful skills which will cost more SP to activate.

2. Get New Pokémon To Become A Master Trainer

Just like in the original Pokémon trading card games, in Pixel Tournament you cannot go through the game with but a handful of monsters at your disposal. The more you have Pokémon in your collection, the higher chances that you will find a way to counter your opponent with a monster type that is particularly effective against them. There is a number of ways in which you can increase the number of your Pokémon.

The first and the most obvious way to get more pocket monsters is by catching them in the wilderness (just like in the good ol’ Pokémon Red). In oppose to the original series, you won’t have to battle wild Pokémon, but you have to simply throw a ball at them. Simple as it sounds, there is something about it that you should remember. There is a number of different balls that you can use to catch wild Pokémon. Remember that the more advanced monster you are trying to catch, the more advanced ball you will have to use against it. You can easily catch green and blue quality Pokémon by using Normal Balls, whereas orange quality Pokémon will require Super or Master Balls. Make sure to always check the quality of the Pokémon you are trying to catch in order not to waste balls on nothing.

Apart from finding Pokémon in the wilderness, you can also get them from the draw machine which will pick up the random Pokémon. The most common draw is called the Ordinary Draw. You can perform it on a daily basis, since it’s relatively cheap. Moreover, at the beginning of the game you can get 5 free draws, which should provide you with a reasonable number of Pokémons to start with. Remember that the Ordinary Draw provides you with a chance for a green or blue quality Pokémon only. In order to get monsters of the higher quality you will have to level them up or attempt Friendship or Advanced Draw. Mind that, however, these two will require from you a number of other resources (such as diamonds and strawberries) which may be quite difficult to get at the early stages of the game.

3. Level Up Your Pokémon

Once the experience bar of your Pokémon fills up, your monsters get new levels. With every new level your Pokémon stats improve and with that grows their effectiveness in battle.

There are six stats that you should take a not of: Hit Points, Physical Attack, Special Attack, Speed, Physical Defense and Special Defence. HP determines the value of the Pokémon health, Physical and Special ATK and DEF show the value of two kinds of attacks and their defences, whereas Speed indicates which of the Pokémon will be first in the Action Order. Once you level up your monster, you will see that its stats will improve as well and with that their efficiency against the enemy Pokémon.

Once in a while your monsters will also evolve and change their appearance along with their quality. This transformation will also unlock new skills they can activate. If you don’t want to wait, you can speed up the process of their evolution by spending on that a given amount of gold coins. Remember, however, that the level of your Pokémon cannot exceed the level of the trainer.

4. Don’t Forget To Claim Your Rewards

In Pixel Tournament you can get a number of rewards, such as coins, items and experience boosts which can be used either as a currency or upgrades. There are many ways in which the game rewards you for your effort.

Remember that Pixel Tournament is one of the idle games in which the time spend in the game doesn’t necessarily have to reflect the actual effort of the player. That said, you don’t have to be online in order to reap a number of benefits. Every time you log into the game you can simply collect the goods that have been stacking up all that time you weren’t online, so you don’t have to worry that you will miss a thing.

Getting rewards from completing quests and achievements is another thing. Make sure to assign yourself those tasks that you are capable of fulfilling within a given day. Otherwise it’s a simple waste of the in-game time and you will have to postpone some of the tasks for later.

And that would be all for the beginners’ guide to Pixel Tournament. The game may look at the first glance as a crude Pokémon copy, but it certainly does have its merits that haven’t been introduced in the original game series. If you want to share your feelings or experience about the game, or propose your set of tips and tricks, feel free to put them in the comment section below!